Introduction to UKR-SIG Projects

We begin by listing the records sets we know about, and who to contact if you want to help. If there is no contact person listed, we encourage you to volunteer - you can contact UKR-SIG coordinator. The work of a project coordinator will vary according to the size of the project, availability of the records, etc. There are small projects and large ones - everyone can participate.

There are ways you can help, even if you only have a little free time, only know one language, or are on a tight budget. Read on, and see what catches your eye!

General Resources

Microfilms at Family History Library ("Mormons")

We've recently become aware that the Mormons have been filming at various cities in the Ukraine, and records are becoming available. A preliminary list is here. The Mormons will make CDs of the films for us, but we'd need translators and transliterators (depending on whether the records are in Cyrllic or a Latin language). Generally, this means fundraisiing, because a good proficient dependable translator should be paid.

We may need people to negotiate getting the CDs, or getting permisssion to do the work from the Ukrainian archives.

Searching for "civil records" in the Ukraine gives about 2000 results for births, marriages, deaths, etc., some of which would be Jewish records. Most seem to be during the inter-war years.

The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem)

The Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem) has, within their collection, records for some Ukrainian towns. Their catalog is organized by country, province, district and town name. This project would need someone who has a computer that can type in Hebrew, to email them and ask about what they have, or better, someone in Jerusalem to visit them and initiate a discussion about access, fees, etc. If you'd like to read how this effort came about,and more about wht they have, here is a great article by Benyamin Lukin. (Article will open in a new window.)

University Libraries

We know that such universities as Harvard, Stanford, etc. have large libraries, and have Ukrainian documents, photos, etc. These can be searched online, so it would be somewhat simple to compile lists of what's available, and download the photos, articles,etc. if possible. You can do this with just a few minutes - pick a library, find the library database,and enter a few of your Ukrainian city names. See what comes up, and try a few spelling variations.

Dorot Division at New York Public Library

"Despite being a native New York Jewish genealogist, only now did I come to appreciate the public library's Dorot Jewish Division. Not least its online catalog: in English or not, their onsite books, pictures collections and titles, were educational simply by the catalog entry descriptions. If anything looked promising, I'd go up to see it."

The Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts

This institute is a part of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. We know it has a Pinkas register for Pishonke, Podolia, but don't know what other records it may have.

Voter Lists

Harvard and other university libraries have the gubernia vedimosti which include voter lsits. They won't let the films out of the library, so we need local reserchers to go to these libraries and make paper copies of the relevant records, so those can be scanned. Probably only a few dozen pages for each city, but the records are likely in Cyrllic/Russian.

The Slaughter of the Jews in the Ukraine in 1919 (a book)

This book was published in 1921, and is available in its entirety here. (Note: it was 235 pages, so without a high-speed internet connection, the download may take some time.) Many names of individual Jews are within the text of the book and a name index could be created. In addition, section pertaining to specific towns, shtetls and gubernis could be extracted and added to those webpages or ShtetLinks. The book is written in English.

Place-Specific Resources

Balta, Podolia gubernia

The Balta "Chevra Bikur Holim" [Society for Visiting the Sick], a Jewish communal organization has a surviving register in the Vernadsky Library in Kiev covering the central porion of the 19th century (1821-1869).

Chernivtsi, Bukovina (listed in Podolia Gubernia)

As of November, 2007, a substantial collection of vital records microfilms were available from the Family History Library.

Pishonke, Podolia Gubernia

The Pinkas - the Jewish Community Register of Pischonka has been preserved and is on microfilm in The Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts, a part of the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem. Someone could go to the library and photocopy the useful pages, or someone could obtain the microfilm itself, and scan the useful pages.

Donor and Volunteer Forms

If you have time-and-effort, data, images, or stories to contribute, we'll need you to submit the correct form along with your contribution.

This form can be used for all projects organized by Ukraine-SIG. One Volunteer Form will cover all of the projects you work on for us, so if you are ready to volunteer now, but still trying to figure out how you can help, just fill in First Assignment as "Volunteer for Ukraine-SIG" and being supervised by Freya Maslov, Co-Coordinator of Ukraine-SIG. If you know a particular project that you'd like to work on, you can note that project and the name of the person running the project.